The National Training and Simulation Association (NTSA), sponsor of I/ITSEC, believes strongly that there is an American crisis in science and technology education. At our I/ITSEC event, you will see Science, Technology, Engineering and Math programs (STEM) in action on many different levels.

In order to keep I/ITSEC program timely and relevant, over 300 volunteers dedicate time throughout the entire year (sometimes more) to provide fresh relevant material. Click through this section to see more about the committee structure and opportunities.
If you are interested in being joining this team, contact the Program Chair to be connected to the upcoming year's coordinator.

I/ITSEC Fellows

I/ITSEC Fellows
This Award is presented in recognition of significant influence in shaping current Modeling and Simulation Technology.

To submit a nomination for future I/ITSEC Fellows, click here. The submissions close annually in early January.

I/ITSEC Fellows is a series of presentations by technical leaders responsible for the seminal contributions that have fundamentally shaped the simulation and training capabilities being delivered today.
The conference leadership invites iconic visionaries to share their insight for future developments and to describe their part in reaching our current posture, relating both their success and challenges as enduring lessons learned that will
apply across a broad range of endeavors as the community moves forward.
Recipients are asked to submit a paper to I/ITSEC describing those efforts and lessons learned.

Dr. Thorpe served in the Air Force as an R&D officer for 26 years. He earned his Ph.D. under a program offered by the Air Force Institute of Technology at public/private universities. Unusually, nearly half his career was spent at DARPA as a Program Manager, Office Director, and Special Assistant to the Director. He created and managed the DARPA SIMNET program and was a founding contributor to the Command Post of the Future program. He was also involved in the development of MicroTravel, Video Arcade Trainers, Desk Top Simulators, the Defense Simulation Internet, the 60% Solution methodology, Interactive History, the Electronic Sand Table, the Double Helix methodology, and SIMNET U and C2U (“U” for university). Dr. Thorpe is on the advisory board of the Army's Institute for Creative Technologies, and is the former Chair of DARPA's Information Science and Technology study group. He is still active in planning and structuring advanced research projects, lately in the area of Strategic Collaboration. Portions of this work involve applying DoD advanced technology to responding to extreme scale disasters, which involves working with California first responders.

Dr. Davis is a senior principal researcher at RAND and a professor of policy analysis in the Pardee RAND graduate school. His research has been in strategic planning (primarily for defense), advanced methods of analysis and modeling, and decision making theory. He has published extensively on capabilities-based planning, multi-resolution modeling and exploratory analysis under uncertainty, implications of modern decision science for support of high-level decision making, portfolio-analysis methods for capabilities planning, and social science for counterterrorism and stability operations. Dr. Davis was a senior executive in the Office of the Secretary of Defense before joining RAND. Dr. Davis has served on numerous panels for the National Academy, Defense Science Board, and intelligence community. He is a regular reviewer for several scholarly journals. His degrees are a B.S. from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from M.I.T. in chemical physics.

General Gorman retired from the Army in May 1985, forty years from the date of his enlistment in the Navy during World War II. In his final assignment, he was Commander-in-Chief, U.S. SOUTHERN COMMAND, 1983-1985. His service included three years of infantry combat in Korea and Vietnam, an assignment with the U.S. delegation to the Paris Talks on Vietnam, with CIA as a National Intelligence Officer, and with the Joint Chiefs of
Staff first as J-5, then as Assistant to two successive Chairmen. In 1971-1972, General Gorman was President of the Army’s Board for Dynamic Training, and from 1973 to 1977 he served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Training at Headquarters, Training and Doctrine Command, overseeing reforms of the Army's training system. He has been an innovator in the Army’s use of information technology, both on active duty and since. In 1995 the Society for
Computer Simulation International presented him its Founders Award for Distinguished Service, citing “his many pioneering contributions to the methodology and application of simulation to military defense and preparedness." He has served on Mitre’s Army Advisory Board, on the Army-DARPA Advisory Board, and on the Advisory Board of General Atomics.

Colonel Shiflett has long been recognized as a leading technical innovator within the US Army and DARPA. He has led seminal programs within the training and simulation community, including the original DARPA SIMNET program and the Army’s Close-Combat Tactical Trainer (CCTT). He originated the concepts behind the first development of Semi-Automated Forces (and created the SAF name as well), describing their first implementations as something like the “night of the living dead”. Colonel Shiflett also created and led the original Synthetic Environment Data Representation and Interchange Specification (SEDRIS) program. Colonel Shiflett was the first Technical Director of the Defense Modeling and Simulation (DMSO). He is currently Vice President for Program Management at SAIC where he has served as the Director of FCS Training Systems.

Dr. Ceranowicz, Science Advisor at Alion, earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University. He has been involved in simulations for training since the earliest days of the DARPA SIMNET program when he was the lead engineer responsible for the development of the original ModSAF capability and later the development of the SIMNET SAF capability. When ownership of the DARPA Synthetic Theater of War (STOW) Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) transitioned to the Joint Forces Command, Dr. Ceranowicz accompanied the program, becoming the chief engineer for JSAF development as well as leading the development of the experimental program embodied in the Millennium Challenge 02 federation. Dr Ceranowicz is also responsible for the development of a more efficient class of simulated entities that represented 10,000 distinct entities during JFCOM experimentation. Using supercomputers of the time, this same approach led to the simulation of 350,000 entities in single exercises. Dr. Ceranowicz is also a longstanding member of the I/ITSEC community, having received 5 subcommittee nominations for the conference “Best Paper” award and winning that recognition in both 2002 and 2004.

Dr. Duncan (Duke) Miller has been a key figure in the development of distributed simulation for 30 years. In 1983, he formed and led the development of the SIMNET system and protocols. He chaired the Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) Technical Committee that developed the DIS Standards, and served on the government/FFRDC team that developed the High Level Architecture (HLA). He was a founding member of the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO), where he served as Chair of SISO’s Board of Directors, Chair of SISO’s Conference Committee, and as a member of SISO’s Executive Committee. From 2001-2012, he was SISO’s Executive Director.
In this presentation, Dr. Miller provides a unique perspective on how distributed simulation was conceived and developed, including major milestones, tests, and demonstrations. He offers anecdotes and insights regarding key events and individuals, as well as comments on subsequent developments.
Key quotes from “SIMNET and Beyond: A History of the Development of Distributed Simulation”:
“The core concept of SIMNET was the networking of multiple simulators, with each simulator providing its own controls, displays, and computational resources. No central control system scheduled events or resolved interactions among the simulation nodes. Instead, each node was autonomous, maintaining authoritative status for one simulated entity (e.g., a tank, helicopter, or missile system) and transmitting messages about the state and actions of its simulated entity to other nodes on a peer-to-peer basis. Each node was also responsible for receiving, interpreting, and responding to messages regarding events that might affect its own entity (e.g., a missile impact, an exploding mine, a collision, etc.) and for reporting any resulting changes in its entity’s state (e.g., damaged, destroyed, or unaffected.)”

“In 1985, the Undersecretary of the Army agreed to redirect funding to DARPA to support SIMNET development, “Because if you can do what you’re telling me, it will change the way the Army manages its weapon systems procurement.” And in many respects, it has. In 1991, a study of various DARPA initiatives by the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies listed SIMNET as one of six programs that have had the most profound effects on the DoD.”

“The SIMNET protocols were the foundation for the Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) protocols, which were used for the Army’s Close Combat Tactical Trainer (CCTT), Aviation Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (AVCATT), and subsequent procurements. DIS, in turn, was a primary source for the High Level Architecture (HLA).”